Two Fortuitous – and Very French - Meetings

Mr. Fix It picked up a call from Sandrine at the Mairie on Tuesday. We had heard word of plans to improve the area outside our house and in front of the Church (less than a stone’s throw away) and we were invited to meet right there at 6 pm with the Mayor, various neighbours and others, to find out what was planned and offer our views. This was the first time I had met our Mayor, a lovely teddy-bear like cuddly chap with a firm handshake. “Vous avez une belle maison la,” he told us (as if we didn’t know) “Le village vous plait?”. A resounding yes from us, many handshakes later, our views of the proposed improvements taken into account, we looked forward to a one to one meeting at the Mairie a couple of days later.

This first meeting was fortuitous because we were able to mention our application to have natural gas installed up to our house ahead of the winter. Since the Mairie are planning works to improve the “place de l’Eglise”, our application would surely be met with some interest and priority.

So it was that yesterday we had an audience with the Mayor in his office. He had already been in touch with “Gaz de France” to ask them to treat our application with some urgency. Digging up the road outside to connect our gas should obviously be done ahead of the proposed works for the village. Time and chance was again on our side.

I asked our Mayor if he was happy about so many English people coming to live in this beautiful part of France. “We welcome English people” he told me. “People are people and the English folk who live here are happy to integrate into the French way of life. I hope you are happy here too” he said with a twinkle in his eye. I told him about this blog and he was keen to include it in our village website. It takes two to tango, I thought. If you are prepared to take an interest in your surroundings, the people who live in your community in France, you will be rewarded with friendliness and warmth.

So we await our gas connection and meanwhile can look ahead to a warm winter, log fires in every room and the ambient background heat from our future central heating. For the moment, however, the sun still shines bright and strong, summer is not yet over and the shadows in the early evening sun are long.

The wine harvest has begun in earnest and we have watched many a tall tractor go by ready to pick up the heavy grapes from the vines to take back to the “caves” which abound in this area. The vines last some 25 years or more, grow for around 2 to 3 years before they are harvested and we are spoilt for choice when it comes to choosing a decent bottle. This, after all, is the largest wine growing area in France.

Yesterday evening I took a walk around our village as the sun gave out its last peachy rays. This is always a special time here: the light is soft and warm and one is unlikely to see more than a tractor or grape picker on the roads. I arrived back at our house to see the sun flooding through the stained glass window on the half landing from the west. Aside from realising that our marble staircase could do with a dust or two (a minor impediment in the greater scheme of things), I thought to myself that here is where I would rather be: we have the time and energy to nurture this house and Mr. Fix It and I consider that we have found our home.

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